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BAGHDAD, April 7 (AFP)- Former rebel leader
Jalal Talabani took the oath of office as Iraq's
first Kurdish president Thursday as the country's
new government finally took shape more than two
months after watershed elections.
Shiite Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni outgoing
president Ghazi al-Yawar were sworn in as Talabani's
two deputies completing a three-man presidency that
was then expected to nominate a prime minister.
"We will rebuild the Iraqi government on principles
of democracy, human rights... and the Islamic
identity of the Iraqi government," Talabani, the
country's first freely-elected president, told a
special session of parliament.
The session was held in Baghdad's fortified Green
Zone amid tight security. Bridges across the
adjacent Tigris River were closed.
Washington and its allies have hailed what they
describe as a "momentous step" in Iraq's progress
towards democracy, but the first murmurs of dissent
have begun to stir about the sectarian basis of the
allocation of top government jobs.
The Shiite majority community, whose main political
alliance took a majority of seats in January 30
election was to provide the prime minister --
Ibrahim al-Jaafari -- and one of the two vice
presidents.
But for the first time in Iraq's history, a Kurd
took the oath as president, a major advance for a
people long-repressed under ousted dictator Saddam
Hussein.
The three-man presidency was elected by MPs
Wednesday after weeks of bickering between the three
main communities, riven by the bitter legacy of
Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated regime which largely
boycotted the elections.
The Sunnis also obtained the promise of the defence
ministry among up to six cabinet posts in the
government now expected to be formed within a week,
even though they have just 16 MPs in the 275-member
parliament.
US President George W. Bush hailed what he described
as a "momentous step forward in Iraq's transition to
democracy" after the election of Talabani.
"The Iraqi people have shown their commitment to
democracy and we, in turn, are committed to Iraq. We
look forward to working with this new government and
we congratulate all Iraqis on this historic day,"
Bush said.
But sectarian considerations won out over purely
democratic ones in the allocation of top jobs as
both the majority Shiites and the second-placed
Kurds strove to woo the Sunni Arab former elite away
from violence and back into the political
mainstream.
"The constitution will reinforce the people's
reconciliation in Iraq ... without any element of
discrimination," Talabani vowed in his inauguration
speech.
"It (will) preserve the liberty for all, where all
the citizens, whether Shiite or Sunni, will be
brothers.
"We have to continue dialogue to complete a full
understanding with our brothers, the Sunni Arabs --
terorrism is the major block standing in the way of
stability."
In a reminder of the continuing strength of the
insurgency in Sunni areas, 12 civilians were wounded
by a suicide bomber in the northwestern town of Tall
Afar on Thursday.
Four policemen were also wounded by a booby-trapped
car in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, security sources
said.
But some Shiite leaders expressed anger at the
prospect of retaining the sectarian carve-up that
characterised the interim governments installed
under the US-led occupation, despite the
parliamentary majority the long-oppressed community
won in January's elections.
Sheikh Abdul Karim al-Mahamadawi, who led Shiite
resistance to Saddam's regime in the marshlands of
southern Iraq in the early 1990s, paid tribute to
Talabani's record as a rebel fighter but said he
opposed his election simply because he was a Kurd.
"I am... against the quota system," Mahamadawi told
AFP.
"This is how this next government is being formed
and it looks like it will even be enshrined in the
permenant constitution.
"I call it canned democracy offered by America, or
even worse and more dangerous, the forbidden fruit
that the devil tempted Adam with."
Even some Sunni MPs questioned the wisdom of
establishing a Lebanese-style political system
dominated by sectarian loyalties.
"The old wounds I think are getting deeper," said
Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, whose second cousin Ghazi al-Yawar
is the Sunni vice president-elect.
"This is a farce, everything is pre-ordained and
pre-arranged before lawmakers convene," said Jarba,
who, as a chief of the Shammar tribal confederation
which straddles Iraq's ethnic divide, was elected as
an MP for the Shiite alliance even though he is
Sunni.
AFP
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